Gainey was a world-famous Decatur gardener and designer, a gifted eccentric who loved Jack Russell terriers. He owned a property in Lexington, Ga. He was staying there in July 2016 when a fire broke out. Gainey rushed inside with a garden hose in an attempt to save his dogs and did not return. Gainey and his dogs died and his Lexington home was destroyed.

“Gainey has been the focus of numerous gardening television programs, but this film is the first project to examine the complexities of his life,” the filmmakers said. “As the film shows, he was a contradictory character, both off-putting and tender, self-absorbed and generous, artificial and authentic. Ryan Gainey was a lover of beauty, and his home garden in Decatur, Georgia was his masterpiece. It was, as he often said, a ‘garden of remembrance’ where his old friends and family lived on in the overlapping blooms of heirloom plants.”

Gainey’s Decatur home was recently demolished. In 2016 a large tree fell on it, leaving it uninhabitable. A new home is being rebuilt in its place, but the garden will be preserved.